Persons suffering from migraine headaches and patients recovering from surgery, or who are being treated for sports injuries and the like, frequently find it desirable to apply thermal treatment to the affected area. Thermal treatment, such as heat or cold,is employed to reduce swelling, relieve pain and otherwise soothe the area undergoing treatment.
A common practice in applying thermal treatment to a patient's face, particularly in the region of the eyes, has been to employ an icebag, which typically is filled with a mixture of crushed ice and water. Icebags, however, do not conform well to the contours of a person's face; and they are difficult to hold in place. An early effort at tailoring or shaping such a bag over the eye region of a person is found in the Allegretti U.S. Pat. No.702,759. The bag of Allegretti is specifically shaped to conform generally to the forehead and eyes of a person, and includes a strap to hold it against the face while it is use. Heat transfer between the area of the body (namely, the eye region) against which the bag is placed and the fluid within the bag then takes place through the bag itself. A more recent patent to a similar type of shaped water bag is disclosed in the MacKenzie U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,189.
Water bags or ice bags, whether they are general purpose bags or specifically shaped to conform to the face, as in the case of the bags of Allegretti and MacKenzie, have a distinct disadvantage in use. The ice/water solution rapidly attains the temperature of the underlying area being treated; and furthermore it is necessary, once the cooling effect has been depleted, to empty the bag and refill it with a new ice/water mixture for continued use. This is a messy and time consuming procedure.
Thermal treatment devices specifically directed to the treatment of the facial region in the location of the eyes, which have been developed to overcome some of the disadvantages of the ice bag configurations of MacKenzie and Allegretti, are disclosed in the Viesturs U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,318 and Gazelle U.S. Pat. No. 2,796,903. The devices of both of these patents have a pair of compartments which are shaped to overlie a person's face in the region of the eyes. The compartments of the devices disclosed in both of these patents are provided with relatively wide openings to facilitate the insertion of ice into the compartments. The devices then are self sealing; and straps are provided to hold them on the face, against the eyes, in order to effect the thermal treatment. Although the use of the bags of Gazelle and Viesturs is facilitated by nature of the access openings to the ice compartments, it still is necessary to empty the compartments and refill them with ice or a mixture of ice and water each time the cooling effect of the ice has been depleted. The coolant located within the bags is discarded, once thermal equilibrium is reached.
The Dorsey U.S. Pat. No. 2,755,803 is a somewhat different approach, which employs an eye shield with a compartment for holding a sponge. The sponge is immersed in either hot or cold water, placed in the compartment, and then the shield is placed against the eyes and is held there by a strap which goes around the head. The device of this patent, however, is a somewhat less effective thermal transfer device than the ones of the patents described above, since no ice is employed but merely a water filled sponge. Replacement of the sponge, however, can be effected relatively quickly and easily during the course of treatment.
The Angelo U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,812 and Takehashi U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,865 are directed to ice masks or cooling devices which do not require emptying and refilling of the reservoir during use. The device of Angelo includes a sealed mask with a number of individual compartments formed in it. The compartments are each filled with a thermal storage material in the form of a gelatinous substance of the type used for artificial ice cubes, sold under a variety of different trade names, such as BLUE ICE.RTM.. Thus, the mask may be placed in a freezer to cool down the sections; and because the sections are separated, the mask may be conformed to the face of the user to effect thermal transfer between the face region behind the mask and the thermal storage material in the various compartments.
The Takehashi patent is a cooling pillow which is filled with a mixture of fine particles of hard carbon and water. The device is cooled and then applied against a portion of the head of a user to effect the thermal transfer. As with the device of Angelo, upon attainment of thermal equilibrium, the Takehashi device once again may be placed in a freezer or other suitable cooling environment to reduce the temperature of the material with which it is filled. No emptying and refilling of the devices of either Takehashi or Angelo is necessary to permit their reuse.
While all of the thermal treatment devices or ice masks which have been described above are capable of effecting a thermal transfer between the cooling material contained within the device and the portion of the body against which it is placed, none of them are capable of utilization for massaging the affected region behind the mask. An attempt to provide both a thermal transfer material and a massage effect simultaneously is disclosed in the Pistay U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,437 . This patent discloses a pillow in a U-shaped form. Extensions fit around the neck, with a thicker upper portion in intimate contact with the posterior portion of the head of a person using the pillow. On each side of the pillow, a pocket is provided which may be filled with a thermal transfer material, such as packets of gelatinous artificial ice material which may be frozen and reused to effect a thermal transfer. An electric vibrator also is embedded in a foam housing within the pillow. When the vibrator is turned on, the entire pillow operates as a vibrator massage; and the separate thermal transfer packets in the pockets effect the heat transfer desired. It is to be noted, however, that the thermal transfer packets and the vibrator operate independently of one another; although both of them are incorporated into the pillow.
It is desirable to provide a therapeutic mask which is particularly suitable for operation in the region of the eyes of a person, which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art, and which is capable of providing both a thermal treatment and a massage treatment, simultaneously, to the area underlying the mask.